My new website for thermal storage, listeroid, new house, off-grid power, etc.

[mbryner]

Hi everyone,

Some of you may be following my saga of Listeroid big end failure with mangled crankshaft, etc.  

On a lighter note, a few days ago I put up a new website documenting our whole experience with building an off-grid home and everything that goes along with it, including power system, gravity water system, suspension bridges, Listeroids, thermal storage, masonry heaters, earthtube cooling, microwave link high speed internet, etc.   Enjoy:

http://www.docbryner.com/mossy_hollow

Marcus

[mobile_bob]

all i can say is wow!

and ... well... wow!

very nice, and it should bring you and your family many years of happy memories.

bob g

ps. i  would happily live in the powerhouse!

[Apogee]

Marcus,

The project is coming along beautifully!

I'm envious as that has been my dream for a very long time.

Hat's off to you and the wife.

Best,

Steve

[slowspeed]

How do I get a pad lock like that one on the powerhouse?
very nice!!!!

[mbryner]

Ha. that's an easy one.  A Renaissance Faire website, medieval lock replica, $18

[SteveU.]

Hi Marcus
I just finished looking through your photo journey. Wonderful job you both have done with this. I especially enjoyed the house, garden and trail/bridge building pictures. Your mass hearth stove build pictures were fantastic! She got her oven too! Thanks for sharing.
Bet you would say now your most single indispensable piece of equipment would be your Kubota tractor with attachments eh?
Now with a PTO gen head IT could be your HD generator back up. Not something you would want to run all of the time of course (fuel and unnecessary expensive equipment wear), but always there and you own it.  
www.northerntool.com
Makes me wonder what you'll gonna' do with all of that freed up brainpower you both been using the past four years once done and moved in. World Peace? or cure cancer?

Regards
Washington State Steve Unruh

[RogerAS]

Marcus,

What an absolutely beautiful setting and you have surely worked that backside off!

I am proud that there are folks out there with the resources which allow them to be this serious about creating not just a place to live but a showcase for determination.

How ever you made enough money to sink into this project the job must pay very well. I'm not asking what you bring home! Not my business!

I live in a house with a smaller footprint than your outbuilding!

R

[mbryner]

RogerAS:  Well, I have a great job, but I'm not that flush right now... Have lots of loans.  The house itself has me quite extended financially because the bank had a hard time giving me *any* loan on an off-grid house and 300+ acres of land, but eventually got a bank loan to cover 2/3.   Had to do creative manipulation of finances, beg money from family, and go directly to bank pres and VP (who I know from Rotary Club).   Both of them have been out to the project in the past few months and thought it was cool.  Getting it finished is a challenge.  It's not difficult to buy big chunks of land: we bought our land from the loggers directly; they hold the loan.   I could have bought 10 acres down near the Rogue or Applegate River for the same price.   Other projects, like the powerhouse, thermal storage tank, earthtubes, Listeroid, etc. I have worked on myself on weekends and evenings whenever there's a free moment.  I can't just throw money at contractors for those projects; I just get less sleep.   

e.g.  I set the well pump myself, 320 ft deep, in November 2007 in the evening by generator and car lights working up to 10 pm.  My wife helped by securing the wires, screwing on the next pipe lengths, etc., while our baby slept in the carseat.  Saved $1000.

True, we have a lot of ideas swirling around, but I made the website to document how we did it in case anyone else wanted to try one or more of the projects.   To me it's a big adventure!  Other people have other hobbies; you may find me routing out a trail sign late at night, or gluing PVC pipe together in a trench.

Hey SteveU!  Yes, a PTO gen head is a good idea.   Maybe when the little portable generator dies.

Marcus

[mbryner]

Oh, hey, slowspeed:  here's the link for the old lock on the powerhouse door.   It took a little while to find again.  The price is great!

http://www.medievalcollectibles.com/c-227-dungeon-locks.aspx

[vdubnut62]

I was under the mistaken impression that people came in two categories, thinkers, and do-ers.  I am now corrected.
Marcus, you are both. Other than that , I am at a loss for words.
Ron

[RogerAS]

Marcus,

Well, good for you. It never hurts to have friends in high places!

Don't work yourself into an early grave.

I used to live in the Eugene area, and my youngest child lives there now. I love the summers, but I like to see the sun a few times through winter!

My wife and I are too old to go very deeply into debt, so we gnaw away at our place little by little. I've never even had dreams about a mansion/estate like you're building.

Be careful. I broke a wrist that held us back from getting things the way we want. We haven't caught up and that's been about 5 years ago. Been there done that middle of the night stuff, shudder.

R

[mbryner]

a mansion/estate like you're building

Never liked the term mansion.   Too many haughty, evil, money-grubbing images.  The house is 2700 sq ft.  It does have a lot of details, though, I'll admit.  

In this age, debt is a bad thing.   Good philosophy to stay out of debt.  

Southern Oregon has a totally different climate than Eugene -- much dryer and sunnier!

Man, everytime I write something on this forum I have to go back and edit a few times...  BTW, I forgot to mention that the website is a work in progress.   For instance, in the house pages, I haven't told about how we salvaged old gym bleachers and replaned them for our wood floor in the whole downstairs.   Got them off Craigslist for about 1/4 the cost of new wood floor. (!!!!)   So many cool things to talk about.   Come down/up and visit sometime any of you.

[AdeV]

Marcus,

Can I just add my congratulations on an awesome (and I don't use that word lightly) project of mammoth proportions. You're doing almost exactly what I plan to do - except I won't be on quite such a big piece of land (about 1/10th the size will suit me fine), and I probably won't go for quite such a big house (I'd rather have a massive barn for all my toys ).

With all those acres, are you planning to grow your own wood & vegetable oil? I reckon you could become totally independent of Big Oil with that much ground... hell, grow a few acres of cash crop, and you shouldn't ever need a "real" job again either! Well... once you've paid the loans off at least.

[mike90045]

Just awesome. You are moving along much faster than I am - still siting the house and septic location and listeroid isn't bolted down yet.   We too are planning a Masonry Stove - did you use plans, or wing it ??

Mike

[mbryner]

Mike,

We used a Heatkit core.  Look at:  www.heatkit.com

OK priced masonry heater core and then we had a local mason use rocks we collected around the land for the facing.  That's another part of the website that doesn't have documentation yet.    

Another co. we looked at was: www.tempcast.com

I was eagerly following your project on Facebook, but don't you live quite aways from your land and you're only there occasionally?   You also have a cool pond and lots of hydropower potential if memory serves correctly.